Excellent. Notice the word "disciplined"? I think once discipline goes by the way, people tend to give up independance at which time government starts taking up the slack and starts gently taking away liberties. From then on it's like the frog in the pan of water that warms up slowly until the frog is boiled alive and never notices it. Of course one of the liberties a benevolent government will relieve individuals of is that of protecting himself, so he won't need those nasty old guns and knives anymore. The benevolent government also knows what's best for his health, what he should eat, drink, exercise, how he should travel, even what he should think. Welcome 1984.

Too bad that isn't what Washington said. Here's the real excerpt from his First State of the Union speech:

A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.

A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.

Click to expand...

I would agree with this one as a true record of our country's history.

As one from this list who is taking the (free) online US Constitution class, the start of the lectures impress the fact that the founding fathers were incredibly well read intellectuals who could quote Greek and Roman philosophers while assembling the Declaration of Independence.

Our Founding Fathers were not mere rabble-rousers!

To be disciplined while bearing arms means to have the capacity to know when to stand firm with your body and mind long before deciding when to put those bodies on the front lines (with arms).

Unfortunately, too many "Don't Tread On Me" types on this list don't understand this and display their ignorance by disparaging regular people of other political affiliations rather than focus on the real threats to our liberties. They have historically been Kings and Emperors.

It sounds like thoughs wher not his exact words. But i still like them.
Mr mogunner, heres one for ya. I realy don't know who said this maybe you do. the quote gos somthing like this.
People should not be afraid of there goverment. there goverment should be afraid of them.
Do you or anyone else know who said it?

Movie, V for Vendetta. Usually falsely attributed to Thomas Jefferson, but the re-ordered form, "Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty", to John Basil Barnhill, a writer and publisher in the late 19th and early 20th century, taken from the transcript of the Barnhill-Tichenor Debate on Socialism (1914)

Movie, V for Vendetta. Usually falsely attributed to Thomas Jefferson, but the re-ordered form, "Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty", to John Basil Barnhill, a writer and publisher in the late 19th and early 20th century, taken from the transcript of the Barnhill-Tichenor Debate on Socialism (1914)

I'm very fluent in Google, lol... spend a lot of time researching stuff for my writing as well as other interests, wife says if I can't find it, it's probably not out there. Not so sure, as I have a heck of a time finding Hormel ham patties, but I KNOW they are out there somewhere!

Excellent. Notice the word "disciplined"? I think once discipline goes by the way, people tend to give up independance at which time government starts taking up the slack and starts gently taking away liberties. From then on it's like the frog in the pan of water that warms up slowly until the frog is boiled alive and never notices it. Of course one of the liberties a benevolent government will relieve individuals of is that of protecting himself, so he won't need those nasty old guns and knives anymore. The benevolent government also knows what's best for his health, what he should eat, drink, exercise, how he should travel, even what he should think. Welcome 1984.

There's the rub. We have been stroked by a benevolent government since FDR. Very few citizens these days have the discipline, values, temperment, responsibility, compassion and morality to wield the power of being armed. But we can learn!